Narrow paths

In Matthew 7:13 -14 we find Jesus saying Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Jesus was saying those words for you and me because he wants the entire world to know how they can have eternal life. Jesus made some interesting points about salvation. For starters he said that the road is narrow. This means the path leading to heaven has little room for deviation. Imagine yourself walking a narrow pathway cut along the side of a mountain. You would surely hold tightly to the path, being careful to step only on solid ground. Too far to one side send you off the path and into the destruction waiting below. That is just like our life. The pathway into eternity is only wide enough to allow one way into heaven, and that is in Jesus Christ and his work for you on the cross. There simply is no other way into heaven. Acts 4:12 says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. This is contrary to what fellow men and all the religions of the world will teach you. They prefer a wide path, with room for everyone to come to heaven. But it was God who created this world and He created you. Not only that, but he paid the penalty of death on our behalf, so that we may have access to eternal life with Him. Jesus himself claimed to be life I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in me will live (John 11:25). Since he secured this salvation for us, he is the only one to whom we may go. Man does not have the ability, nor the authority to tell God how it should be. It is also a lonely road. Religions have been offering up all kinds of tickets into heaven. Most of their ideas are based on works that you can do. But the best of our works are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 1 John warns us that those who deny that Jesus is the Christ is a liar (2:22). If someone comes to you and offers a pathway into heaven that does not include Christ and his work on the cross, they are a fraud. There are all kinds of ideas about pleasing God in this world, and the crowds surrounding these ideas are growing every day. Only a few voices remain that will tell you what the Savior of the world has been saying from the beginning. The majority is not always right; in this case the majority has been fooled. I plead for you to listen to the one who died for you, not someone wanting to win you over to their ideas. Rev. Nathan Dick is pastor of the Panton Community Baptist Church in Addison County, Vt.